Jeju-do tea museum, a bonsai garden, a maze and a cave

 

Still in Jeju-do, with another tea themed day in sight - we went to visit O'Sulloc tea field and tea museum and finished off with a visit to a wonderful bonsai garden.

The day started off rather cloudy with even a few tiny rain drops, so not very inviting for a day out on a scooter. After checking the weather forecast though, we saw that it's supposed to clear up by 1pm and decided we'd take the plunge anyway.

It was an adventurous ride down the highway on a tiny scooter with cars and trucks speeding past us...which we survived just fine :) (Did I mention that neither of us really drove scooters or motorcycles before?)

Once we arrived to the museum, we had a look around the inside and then the tea fields with neatly trimmed bushes. We were told before arriving to Jeju that at the beginning of their operation, O'Sulloc have imported Japanese technology to make green tea. We got a confirmation when we spotted the fans in the tea field, the same ones we know very well from Japan, maintaining the perfect air temperature. We have seen no such fans on other Korean tea plantations.

Eventually we sat down to have some tea and wanted to try to Korean powdered tea - which was sadly not on the menu. So we had the top and second grade green tea, to compare. They were nice, but none of them quite earth-shattering. All in all, they have a wonderful packaging and design at O'Sulloc, with some decent tea as well, however generally their teas simply aren't up to the standard of the ones we had in Daegu.

 

After the tea museum, we went further to see the Spirited Gardens, about 50 years old bonsai garden/park - bonsai trees that have grown quite a bit since being planted half a century ago. It was very pleasant to walk through this carefully arranged composition of trees, rocks and water with bridges. Fascinating and beautiful.

The following day, we moved up to the North of Jeju island, where we had some amazing food (meat for Niels, mushrooms for Mojca) and a day long walk.

First stop was the Gimnyeong Maze Park, where we joyfully got lost, working our way out from the maze and succeeding in the end!

We then carried on on foot to see the Manjanggul - world's largest lava cave created by volcanic activity, which was a dark but compelling sight. While inside the tunnel, I imagined how lava must have once been violently flowing through it, wreaking havoc underground, resulting in this natural monument today.  It was a nice refreshment from the heat as well.

 

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